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Centrix’ Pleau:
In the Eye of the Needle
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Business New Haven
1/12/1998
By: Kevin Wheeler
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Centrix Inc. in Shelton (see page 9) manufactures small, disposable dental products, primarily prepackaged syringes filled with composite, a white substance used for cosmetic dentistry and for filling cavities. In all, the company manufacturers roughly 150 products, from the aforementioned syringes in many varieties to brushes and polishers. The products retail from $6 to $300.
While manufacturing the molded parts, such as plastic and stainless steel syringe tubes and needles, is contracted out to vendors, the assembly of those parts remains an in-house operation.
The “girls,” as they refer to each other, work on automated machines that require four to five weeks of training - how the machine operates, and what to look for when something goes wrong. Every job comes with a work order and the necessary procedures.
Such pink-collar manufacturing, such as for a “tube-and-plug order,” involves setting up the machines to insert the needles into the syringe tubes, testing them to make sure that they can withstand the specified pressure tolerance, packaging them in bundles of 100, packaging plugs (to keep the composite in the tubes) in 100s, and finally assembling a carton with 600 tubes and plugs. Assembly takes about two and half hours.
Jacqueline Pleau is Centrix' production manager. She has been in manufacturing for 20 years and was hired at Centrix ten months ago because of her experience. She considers trouble-shooting one of the most valuable skills in manufacturing. As Pleau says, “Even after five or six years, the [machinists] still come across problems they can't fix,” which is key keeping the production on schedule.
But what does it take to really make things move at Centrix? Product knowledge, says Pleau. “We have many products. They may all look alike, but they're all different. We have to be aware of how things are done, how they are different, to [distinguish] which needles go into which instrument. And we have to have a good understanding of where and how the product
is used.”
In addition to product knowledge, Pleau says a good craftsmen needs to thoroughly understand standard procedures and be conscientious about their job. As for what makes a machinist versatile: literacy. “You need to be able to read, write and comprehend procedures.”
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